Chapter 83

0001 - Tempro
0003 - Conner- Thomas
0097 - Ace - Zimmel
0098 - Lucy
0101 - Shelby (mother ship)
0125 - Lars
0130 - Gillese
0200 - Ellen
0250 - Tendra
0301 - Rodrick
0403 - Johnathon
0505 - Craig
0660 - Realla
0778 - Jan
0798 - Celeste - Shelby (human)
0805 - Toran
0808 - Radella
0881 - Handrax
0908 - Tara - Mara
1000 - Sherry

Ungrown - unnumbered

0100 - Derry (father ship)
Rescued from Tendraxians
so far

2 on Shelby both in re-gen
8 on Lucy

Known and OR numbered

0501 - Thaddeus
???? - Lena

missing - 0667 - Marco
0999 - Zan - still lost

“Soon he who claims to be my brother, this will be over and you? You will be dead at my paws.” Kattra hissed.

Kandra only grunted as a plan formed then he nodded, the thing was though would his brother fall for it?

Kandra rushed a surprised Kattra who deflected a downward diagonal strike, then twisted back with his sword. He went for a killing decapitating blow, only to stop short with a gasp as Kandra’s sword pushed through his chest.

Blood started to flow from his mouth as he growled at Kandra then spit at him. “Enjoy while you can, my followers will have your head in little time.”

Kandra sneered as he yanked his sword free with a sad look. “Not in this lifetime brother,” he said as he watched Kattra’s body fall.

Kandra bent to drawing his long knife, thrusting it into Kattra’s chest removing the heart.

He then stood holding the bloody organ up, “the challenge is finished. I am, as I was, the true Emperor,” with that he took a bite from the heart.

“Now, we will stop this rebellion, we will return to life and not death.” Turning to his command he said, “I want all involved captured. Have them brought to the throne room where they will be truth scanned.”

Kandra then turned to the image of Thomas, “I am honored that you allowed me to witness this.” Thomas said as he bowed.

Kandra nodded as he placed his brother’s heart on a platter beside him. “You and your Emperor brought great honor to us. It seemed only right to return the favor.”

“I have been in contact with my Emperor. He might have an idea that could suppress the fear that many have from the Princess not being here,” Thomas started. “He also warned me from getting too much involved.”

Kandra nodded as Thomas went on to outline just what Derrick had told him.

Jimison and Difina were both panting hard, the exercises today were definitely different. Jimison had also noticed that Difina and the master were moving far faster than they had the day before.

Jimison barely avoided a blow from Kimon, reacting without thinking. “So worthless, you have learned something after all. Death isn’t going to take you as easily. It is about time the both of you woke up!”

Kimon suddenly accelerated his attacks upon Jimison, surprised when the man avoided almost all of them. The commander had been correct after all. It appeared that, the both of them were starting to take this more serious than they had before.

With a slight smile Kimon again accelerated even more, so his Gakusei, both of them were reaching the higher levels.

Kimon kept going up in speed ‘til her got through Jimison’s defenses. Ah! Good Kimon thought, the man was almost twice as fast as the day before. Another slight smile came to his face as Jimison was thrown back by a hit.

Jimison sprang off the wall as he directed all his energy towards his master. He stopped, falling to the floor as Kimon held up a hand to stop him. “Rest, meditate, now the real training can begin, if your mate to be is as ready.”

Jimison looked at Kimon with a shocked look then towards Difina. With a thud Jimison sat to begin meditating.

A smile came to Difina’s face, as she took her defensive position against Kimon.

“Now, unworthy mate of Jimison. We shall see if you have listened as well as he has.” Kimon said as if he was bored.

Even as they started, Kimon noticed that her stance and actions were indeed better than before. Much like with Jimison, he increased his speed to almost the exact point that he had before.

Much like Jimison she avoided almost everything, then like Jimison she was heading for the wall. With a ferocious roar, Difina was flying off the wall toward Kimon. She also dropped to the floor as Kimon held up a hand.

“You also meditate, rest. As I said now the actual training can begin. I won’t go soft nor easy. What have you felt before? Is only a warmup for, the real work we will start tomorrow,” Kimon said as he bowed to them then left the room.

Both Jimison and Difina could only look at each other. Real training? Warm up? Jimison sat a moment then his eyes opened wide. “He has only been training us in the basics. I believe we start to learn advanced techniques tomorrow.”

“This was easy?” Difina asked. “Here I thought we were into the hard techniques.”

“No, we had to learn these before, he taught us the more complicated and deadly forms.” Jimison said with a concerned look on his face.

Difina, could only stare at Jimison with a shocked look then a smile slowly crept to her features.

“So my mate, we are a deadly force now,” Difina said her smile growing ‘til Jimison spoke.

“At the moment we can defend against a great many. What we learn next? THEN, we will be a deadly force,” Jimison said a smile on his lips.

Difina’s face showed brief shock, then her smile returned, “that will be good my mate.”

Jimison nodded as he thought, will it? They would be far deadlier than they were. His temper was bad enough, though hers? He might be the only one that could stop her, maybe.

Hartwell watched as Johnathon worked nonstop to discover a cure for Bee’s condition. He still felt like taking the ship to Bee’s planet and shooting all the males.

A shake of his head had him sitting, if he ever did something like that, Bee would hate him. That he had decided, was something he was no prepared to have happen.

He watched as Johnathon did everything that he could, as of yet, they still hadn’t been able to stabilize Bee’s readings. He’d have thought with her bond to him something from him would work.

None of the fluids from his body would do, they would kill her with the drugs that were in her. Afterward, there was a good chance but not before. Hell, he felt he was lucky she hadn’t died from him touching her.

As he had told Johnathon, he’d never been in love so, he wasn’t sure if this was. If only...

A commotion on the other side of the med-bay drew his attention. Then the defiant, yelling voice had him turning.

“I am fine damnit! Let me out of this damn torture bed!” Came a female voice.

Hartwell quickly went to his sister as she was struggling to get out of the bio-bed. “You know you can’t ... Hartwell started.

The glare from Lucie Hartwell had him snapping his mouth shut. “Get me the hell out of here now! I will make your life a living hell if you don’t!” Lucie Hartwell said between clenched teeth.

“Johnathon!” Hartwell yelled making the holo-gram appear. “Why is she still confined to the bio-bed?”

“Well Prime, I still have not determined that her mental capacities are at optimum.” The holo-gram said.

“You have a way to do this? Hartwell asked.

“At the present, no Prime,” Johnathon said.

“So, if you have no real test for it, why is she still restricted to the bio-bed?” Hartwell asked. “I think,” here Hartwell looked at the smirk that was starting to dominate Lucie’s features. “Her cognitive abilities are good.”

Johnathon looked at Lucie then Johnathon, then back to Lucie. Johnathon, then nodded as there was a pneumatic hiss, then Lucie was free. “If you were alive, I would make your life hell for a while.” Turning to Hartwell she said, “So once again you saved me, this is getting old. I am no weak wimpy female.” Here she poked Hartwell’s chest, “you’d best remember that brother.”

“I could never forget that, though I need to talk to you. I am having trouble with something. Something, that I am afraid I have no knowledge of” Hartwell said with his head bowed.

Lucie looked at her brother a moment, my god she thought. This was serious, she’d not seem him this undecided nor lost in a very long time.

“I’ll do what I can to help, what in the hell is going on? I hope I can help; I told the Emperor I’d do all I could,” Lucie said.

Hartwell sat with a thud as he started to describe all that had happened with Bee. How he felt around her, how she seemed to react around him.

Lucie listened the whole time, seeing and feeling an almost sense of desperation from Hartwell. If she didn’t know that he was as serious as he was, she’d have been on the deck laughing.

Finally finished, she saw her brother turn to her again with a look of desperation on his face. She could see he was waiting for her to speak.

“Ok, a few questions to clear up a few things. Do you have feelings for her, what I mean does it hurt when you are apart? Does the pain go away when you think of her?” She asked as she saw her bewildered brother nod his head. Oh boy she thought, he has it bad though how to tell him. “So, what do you think it is?”

“How the hell do I know? I’ve never felt anything like this before. At first, I thought my heart was bad, Johnathon said my heart rate was up, as was my blood pressure. He said my temperature rose when I was around her,” Hartwell said.

“Hmmmm,” Lucie started, “I think you might, be in love for the first time in your life. Actually, I find it fantastic that you are finally alive, not a stiff figure.”

Hartwell’s face held nothing but shock. Love? What in the hell was his sister talking about? His mouth still hanging open Hartwell had to ask, “Love? How in the hell do you know?”

“I can’t be certain, though all the signs so far point to this being the only thing I can see.” Lucie said doing her best to suppress a smile.

“You can’t be certain, great, here we are at a crucial point in all this and the both of us are uncertain.” Hartwell almost growled.

“Hey!” Lucie yelled at the look of uncertain anger on her brother’s face. “I am not an expert on the subject, ok? I have only experienced it twice when I was a lot younger. Don’t go getting pissed at me, I am no weak female you can boss around. As a matter of fact,” here Lucie took up a martial arts stance.” Bring it brother if you don’t believe me. As I said you caught me unaware before, that won’t happen again.”

Hartwell glanced at his sister; he then nodded his head. She had a look of fierce determination like Kimon. He had to ask himself though, where in the hell had she learned the art?

Derrick shook his head as he read the report from the Delcron Empire. A small grin came to his features, he was glad that the same incident hadn’t occurred here.

His eyes opened wide went he got to the part about the emperor taking a bite from his brother’s heart.

Derrick was about to reach for the comm. when he heard Mary make a throat clearing noise.

“Sire, I realize that with the hostilities that are occurring with both Empires, you are preoccupied. I must remind you of your duty to the Empire. You have not even attempted to procure a mating yet with my humanoid daughter,” Mary said.